On the unification of physics – or the lack thereof…

Dr. Kraus, in his article in Nautilus, has given us a marvelous recap of 50 years of theoretical physics – a dramatic tale of spilled GUTs, twisted strings, branes and broken symmetries. What a strange world we live in! Under those nested layers of increasingly inaccessible explanations, what will we find? More layers? More puzzles? An infinite recursion of theory upon theory? This has to be a discouraging time in the field. Even Stephen Hawking gave up on the TOE – “…there is no picture or theory-independent concept of reality.” ( )

There may be no solution to these condundrums. There are features of physics as well as mathematics that have defeated the best minds for more than a century. Some of these features are paradoxical in ways that more data and better math will not be able to overcome. Perhaps we need to learn to embrace paradox and admit that our reality and existence is, in some sense, truly miraculous. This does not mean we should stop trying to pierce the veil, but it does call for humility and the admission that we are, after all, merely finite human beings. And maybe, after all is said and done, we will find that “love is the answer.”